Mood and emotional disorders in Multiple Sclerosis: a literature review

INTRODUCTION: Even though mood and emotion are closely related concepts, they differ in some ways. This article aims to review the main mood and emotional disorders most often found in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). STATE OF ART: Studies related to four fields are presented and discussed: assessment tools and methodological problems; prevalence, etiology and symptoms of mood as well as emotional disorders in MS; relationship between cognition and emotion. Beside these main subjects, we tackle some interesting questions which concern patients as well as clinicians, such as the risk of depression and protective factors, the relationship between depression and fatigue and the impact of beta-interferon on depression. PROSPECTIVES: We focus on a new promising trend aiming to link neuroimaging data to psychological variables. CONCLUSIONS: These four fields cover a large portion of the questions about mood and emotional disorders in MS. Due to their frequency as well as to their impact on quality of life, specific attention should be given to these disorders.